Sweden's Immigration Fantasy And Why Wealthy Arab Oil States Take No Refugees
Margaret Wente writes in The Globe and Mail, per her interview with Tino Sanandaji, himself an immigrant, and now a Kurdish-Swedish economist:
Sweden's fantasy is that if you socialize the children of immigrants and refugees correctly, they'll grow up to be just like native Swedes. But it hasn't worked out that way. Much of the second generation lives in nice Swedish welfare ghettos. The social strains - white flight, a general decline in trust - are growing worse. The immigrant-heavy city of Malmo, just across the bridge from Denmark, is an economic and social basket case.Sweden's generosity costs a fortune, at a time when economic growth is stagnant. The country now spends about $4-billion a year on settling new refugees - up from $1-billion a few years ago, Mr. Sanandaji said. And they keep coming...
Yet Sweden's acute immigration problems scarcely feature in the mainstream media. Journalists see their mission as stopping racism, so they don't report the bad news. Despite - or perhaps because of - this self-censorship, the gap between the opinion elites and the voters on immigration issues is now a chasm. According to a recent opinion poll, 58 per cent of Swedes believe there is too much immigration, Mr. Sanandaji noted. The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats party is now polling at between 20 per cent and 25 per cent.
Sweden is a cautionary tale for anyone who believes that Europe is capable of assimilating the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants who are besieging the continent, or the millions more who are desperately poised to follow in their wake. The argument that these people are vital to boost the economy - that they will magically create economic growth and bail the Europeans out of their demographic decline - is a fantasy.
Sanadaji borrows from Milton Friedman (on the "open borders" line):
It's really very simple, Mr. Sanandaji explained. You can't combine open borders with a welfare state. "If you're offering generous welfare benefits to every citizen, and anyone can come and use these benefits, then a very large number of people will try to do that. And it's just mathematically impossible for a small country like Sweden to fund those benefits."Meanwhile, Sweden's neighbour, Denmark, has cut the benefits for refugees in half, and has taken out ads in Lebanese newspapers warning would-be migrants to stay home. The Danes don't want to be a moral superpower. They can't afford it.
Nonie Darwish writes at FrontPage.com about some of the reasons wealthy Arab countries are not taking any refugees, and take note of that last one. She's right about this vis a vis Islam's tenets:
* Arab countries lack compassion and action to rescue each other despite the rhetoric of Arab/Islamic unity. Saudi Arabia and Gulf nations never open their borders to poor Muslims in distress. Even Egypt rejected the Darfur refugees who were later forced to go to Israel, which took them.* Oil rich Arab countries make it very difficult for other Arabs to visit except for haj. They are very tribal and refuse to dilute their culture with influx of foreigners. Third world country workers are treated inhumanely and are rarely given permanent residency, citizenship or equal rights as citizens.
* Arabs would rather spend their petrodollars on expanding their influence in the West rather than making life better for their own citizens or supporting other Muslim nations who are financially less fortunate.
* Islamic groups believe that refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan will spread Sharia in Europe, which is the main goal of jihad.
* By clearing the area from the opposition and citizens who are not contributing to the empowerment of ISIS, clears the way for ISIS to expand beyond Syria and Iraq. Europe and America are absorbing the opposition to ISIS, so why stand in the way?
* Life and saving lives and avoiding human tragedy are not more important than jihad in Arab culture.
Also, as I posted yesterday:
The Quran teaches that the disasters which befall communities are a punishment from Allah.
Nice, huh? I'm a post-Jewish atheist, but I can get behind all that Jesus stuff of "feed the poor," etc. What anyone sees who reads at all in Islam -- as I have been doing since 9/11 -- is that Islam is about some pretty ugly stuff. It's basically totalitarianism dressed up as a religion. For a good, quick read on that, check out Howard Bloom's The Mohammed Code
It's much more difficult to assimilate immigrants into a homogenous society (like Sweden) than it is into a heterogenous society (like the US).
It's especially difficult (into either society) when the immigrants don't want to assimilate.
Conan the Grammarian at September 13, 2015 10:23 AM
WTF Germany?! They just closed their border wth Austria because lots of immigrants took them up on their offer of unlimited migration. How did they not see that coming?
NicoleK at September 13, 2015 11:38 AM
How did they not see that coming?
PC. Leftists do not understand unintended consequences.
Dave B at September 13, 2015 6:24 PM
WTF Germany?! They just closed their border wth Austria because lots of immigrants took them up on their offer of unlimited migration.
Don't worry, Nichole. I'm sure that their temporary attack of sanity will pass.
mpetrie98 at September 13, 2015 7:16 PM
California/Texas/Minnesota/any American state is a cautionary tale for anyone who believes that America is capable of assimilating the hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants who are besieging the country, or the millions more who are desperately poised to follow in their wake. The argument that these people are vital to boost the economy - that they will magically create economic growth and bail the Americans out of their demographic decline - is a fantasy.
mpetrie98 at September 13, 2015 7:20 PM
What Merkel just did is beyond cruel. She said they'd take basically anyone... how many people do you think heard that and shelled out their life savings and risked their lives to go their based on what she said? And then she slams the door. Why taunt them like that?
It is so irresponsible. Is she going senile? I mean WTF?
Denmark was honest and put out newspaper ads in Lebanon outlining the reality. They didn't pretend to have room and change their minds. No one is risking their life or fortune because of Danish irresponsibility.
NicoleK at September 14, 2015 12:56 AM
NicoleK: when they are at the border, it is too late to be nice. That is all.
I suppose if they can figure out how to get to the United States, we will have free housing and a drivers license waiting for them…
…you'll pay for it, won't you?
Radwaste at September 14, 2015 1:56 AM
You misread my post... The cruel part was encouraging them to come to begin with, ie making promise they could not keep
Nicolek at September 14, 2015 4:33 AM
Excuse me as I rant...
When Merkel made the announcement inviting the whole planet to Germany, she put everyone at risk in her country. She threatened the cohesion of the EU and the stability of the Schengen countried. She put the lives of syruan refugees and other migrants who had been waffling and decided to make a go of it at risk. All that, and she didnt even mean it, how is that anything but irresponsible?
I get that the Germans have WWII complexes and want to be seen as the opposite of Nazis but you cant invite the whole world in. They need to get over it, most Germans were not alive at the time of the war and those who were were little kids. At the same time they are trying to force everyone else in Europe bend to their will on these issues, which is ironic, as dominating All the other Europeans is somehong he Nazis loved to do too
We will see how the talks go today but if we are imposed quotas to handle these refugees that Merkel invited in I will be pissed.
Nicole at September 14, 2015 5:22 AM
And they were SO PISSED at us a year or two ago when we had a vote to maybe, possibly, reconsider the border terms of Schengen. They threatened us, they kicked us out of various programs, and we hadn't even done it, just voted to TALK about it. And look at them now, they are all shutting their borders!
NicoleK at September 14, 2015 5:39 AM
NicoleK; I agree. Merkel's about-face is cruel.
Merkel's "invite" was basically giving hope to thousands who did invest their life's savings (or went into debt) trying to make it to Germany.
It was unbelievably stupid on her part to think that folks wouldn't try to take her up on that offer.
It was also stupid on her part to think that it wouldn't have a negative impact on Germany and the rest of Europe.
It was also stupid on her part to think that others would be okay with this massive influx of "refugees."
And, yea, Denmark did the right thing in this situation. What gets me about the MSM's reaction to Denmark is that they now so often call Denmark's action "less sympathetic."
I wouldn't call it less sympathetic, I'd call it realistic. And Merkel should have been more realistic as well instead of being all "We Care!"
charles at September 14, 2015 7:04 AM
"The cruel part was encouraging them to come to begin with, ie making promise they could not keep."
You're absolutely right. Having backed themselves into a corner, there was only one course of action remaining, and it was very unpleasant. The mistake was painting themselves into a corner in the first place. (I always thought Merkel had more sense than that.)
Cousin Dave at September 14, 2015 9:57 AM
She's losing what sense she had faster and faster CD.
Ben at September 14, 2015 2:56 PM
They can only boost the economy if they are competitive in a modern economy. Too many of the folks we're getting now (whether from Mexico or the Middle East) are barely competitive in a medieval economy.
It's not fair to ask them to compete against computer programmers when they barely understand advanced math. Nor is it fair to ask the computer programmer to cut what he can spend on his family in order to subsidize the family of someone who would have been better off going to a country with a real need for semi-skilled or manual laborers.
We'd have to educate them. We still need a growing population to create economic vitality, but it needs to be a population that is capable of advancing the economy.
And they need to willingly assimilate into American society. No silos of various isolated nationalities.
Conan the Grammarian at September 14, 2015 3:04 PM
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